Formula 1 [FI] has moved into the fast lane, striking new business alliances with Apple and Louis Vuitton in 2025. Today we focus on LV and F1, with visuals from the new F1 movie by Apple TV.

What Is Formula 1?

For newbies, Formula 1 is the highest level of single-seater car racing. Unlike rally racing or endurance events, which have two people - a driver and co-driver - F1 features only one driver in each car. This makes the sport a pure test of individual driving skill, speed, and precision. It’s a team sport where each team designs and builds their own cars, hoping to win both the Drivers’ Championship and the Constructors’ Championship.

F1 cars are driven at very high speeds, typically over 350 km/h [218 mph, causing the extreme G-forces drivers experience. Technological advancements create constantly increasing competition among drivers and their teams.

Young Women Are a Fast-Growing F1 Demographic

F1 entered 2025 off the back of its most financially successful year to date, reporting USD $3.65 billion in annual revenue in 2024. Women now comprise 41% of the total fan base for Formula 1, with 16-24-year-old demo the fastest growing age sector.

“Formula 1 is a perfect example of a rights owner innovating its relationship with fans,” said Jon Stainer, Nielsen Sports’ Global General Manager. “Growth of interest, especially among women and newer markets like Saudi Arabia can be attributed largely by a shift in how the teams and drivers are profiled today, and the access they are affording global audiences. New sponsorship categories are opening up. We’re seeing a significant shift in the brands engaging in the sport, attracted to this changing fan demographic.

Louis Vuitton Wants In On the F1 Action

The declaration that ‘Victory Travels in Louis Vuitton’ is not new to the brand. The phrase was heard far and wide during the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paraolympic Games.

The concept of luxury travel is fundamental to the Louis Vuitton brand DNA , formulated in 1854 and arguably at a slower pace than a F1 race car. LVMH-owned Belmond's newest train journey is the Britannic Explorer, a luxury sleeper train in England and Wales. It will launch in July 2025 and offer three-night journeys from London through Cornwall, the Lake District, and Wales. You will see Louis Vuitton traveling that route in a state of relative repose.

Pietro Beccari, chairman and chief executive officer of Louis Vuitton, isn’t minimizing the importance of this traveler to the luxury brand. But he is well aware that another customer is waiting in the wings. Like her male majority 59% of F1 fans, she is young, very tech-savvy and in love with speed.

Shared Affinities Between Vuitton and Formula 1

Louis Vuitton joined Formula 1 as an Official Partner in a 10-year agreement that places the House at the heart of this journey of champions. Through a parallel quest for innovation, craft and precision, both Louis Vuitton and Formula 1 constantly push the limits of their universes, and their common values will be showcased as a combined ambition to support triumphant human stories.

“It’s a sort of metaphor of travel, because Formula 1 is like a traveling circus that every 15 days appears here and there around the globe,” Beccari told WWD in January. “If you visit a Formula 1 garage, you will see that it looks like an atelier of trunks because it’s so clean, so incredibly silent, with people concentrated and looking at every single detail, and that’s our passion.”

Both brands share a “spirit of innovation”. From the atelier to the paddock, and up to the finish line, teamwork and creativity are among the values that link Louis Vuitton and Formula 1®, paying homage to the relentless pursuit of victory.

Beccari’s comments serve to articulate this little bit wild child side of ‘Victory Travels in Louis Vuitton’, the granddaughter whose nana is on Belmond’s Britannic Explorer but her granddaughter can do no wrong in her eyes — even if they travel in Louis Vuitton at different speeds.

Louis Vuitton Is a Cultural Movement With High Standards

“People don’t just want to buy a bag any more. They want to be part of a cultural movement,” the CEO explains.

“Sport is culture,” explains Beccari, who is also a member of the LVMH executive committee. “We’re here with F1 for the next decade because it embodies speed, passion and innovation – all values which resonate with Louis Vuitton.”

This is not simply about branding, he says. It is about blending luxury into the essence of sport and crafting an irresistible story that captures hearts and imaginations around the world.

Beccari is a big-brain thinker — probably too big for most people writing about Louis Vuitton these days. AOC is a website that celebrates people like Beccari, who somehow functions in a world of financial analysts and low-rung writers issuing advice edicts to Beccari’s boss Bernard Arnaud like these two legends are fools who don’t know what they are doing.

It’s possible that this high-powered duo could fail with this very expanded vision of LV, but we won’t know that fact for several years. Their mutual instincts have been dead-on correct so far. Becarri’s script is very consistent. The Louis Vuitton Hotel in Paris will open in 2027, no matter whether some financial analyst thinks it’s a good idea or not.

“Sport is culture,” emphasizes Mr Beccari, who is also a member of the LVMH executive committee. “We’re here with F1 for the next decade because it embodies speed, passion and innovation – all values which resonate with Louis Vuitton.”

This is not simply about branding, he says. It is about blending luxury into the essence of sport and crafting an irresistible story that captures hearts and imaginations around the world.

The project also includes TAG Heuer as the official F1 timekeeper and Moët & Chandon as the official champagne of F1

Louis Vuitton was in Montreal from June 13-15, with spectators crowding the city’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve to see the Formula 1 Pirelli Grand Prix Du Canada 2025.

AOC is late covering the new Formula 1 — Louis Vuitton partnership. That became a problem two weeks ago when the humanist photographer Richard Bernardin asked his assistant Julian to reach out to me about ‘DAMIER’, a striking new black-and-white group exhibition that opened Thursday, June 12th, in celebration of Grand Prix Montreal 2025 weekend.

Maison Keï Akai Presents “Damier” Exhibition Featuring Richard Bernardin until June 30, 2025 AOC Daily

The next step in this storyline will shift to Bernardin’s inner thoughts about the duality of damier as a universal symbol, its place in the story of Louis Vuitton heritage as well as Richard’s own photography.

We share a mutual high regard and deep affection for Pharrell Williams, Creative Director of Louis Vuitton Men and Pietro Beccari’s first big hire. On a sidenote, Pharrell shows tomorrow in Paris at 2pm. I often replay the June 2023 debut show because it so lifts my spirits.

Now that I’ve caught up with LV and Formula 1, it’s time to showcase the ideas and insights of photographer Richard Bernardin tomorrow.

Let me also add that this Canadian Grand Prix weekend in Montreal addition of a Damier-inspired art show to the agenda is a great example of the wide lifestyle wings Pietro Beccari is speaking about. This is a grand global experience he’s tying LV into and we really don’t have the measurement metrics available to understand what $100 million annually will buy for LVMH.

We do know that they are very happy with how their major investment in the 2024 Paris Olympics played out. For their efforts, LVMH won the prestigious Grand Prix the 2025 Cannes Lions awards last week. There’s an excellent film top of post.